Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW E
Volume 95, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.95.062602
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Funding
- Odysseus Program of the Flemish Government and the Flemish Research Foundation (FWO-Vl)
- Flemish Research Foundation [G.0115.12N, G.0119.12N, G.0122.12N, G.0429.15N]
- Research Fund of the University
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [11204199, 51135007]
- China Scholarship Council
- 131 project and the Program for the Outstanding Innovative Teams of Higher Learning Institutions of Shanxi
- Shanxi Scholarship Council of China [2016-096]
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Similar to the spontaneous formation of colonies of bacteria, flocks of birds, or schools of fish, living crystals can be formed by artificial self-propelled particles such as Janus colloids. Unlike usual solids, these crystals are far from thermodynamic equilibrium. They fluctuate in time forming a crystalline structure, breaking apart and re-forming again. We propose a method to stabilize living crystals by applying a weak confinement potential that does not suppress the ability of the particles to perform self-propelled motion, but it stabilizes the structure and shape of the dynamical clusters. This gives rise to such configurations of living crystals as living shells formed by Janus colloids. Moreover, the shape of the stable living clusters can be controlled by tuning the potential strength. Our proposal can be verified experimentally with either artificial microswimmers such as Janus colloids, or with living active matter.
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